Each year, about 64 million people cross the San Diego -Tijuana, Mexico border1. A large majority of the people crossing over into the US is residents of the Tijuana metropolitan area, one of the most affluent markets in Mexico, and they spend over $5 billion dollars in San Diego County2 alone on primarily day trips for shopping, work and visiting family. Advertisers have always been eager to tap into the spending of this unique segment but the challenge was finding a cost-effective way to market to them. That’s until now, with the availability of a unique out-of-home digital venue.
The San Ysidro border crossing connects Tijuana to San Diego and is less than 20 miles from Downtown San Diego. This crossing is the world’s busiest port of entry, with over 26.3 million vehicles crossing over annually3. Cars crossing into the US wait for 45 minutes to 2 hours, which is up significantly as a result of increased security since 9/11.
Why are they making these frequent daily trips into the US?
- Over 63% of Tijuana residents visit San Diego to shop
- 12% cross over to visit their family members3.
- 17% cross the border almost everyday because they hold jobs in San Diego.
Given the long lines at this 24-lane border crossing, the passengers in those cars represent one of the largest assembled pools of an affluent, captive audience on its way to shop! Border Billboard, an affiliate of SeeSaw Networks, saw an opportunity to market to this large captive pool, and erected two large digital billboards on the Mexico side ofthe border crossing.
“We wanted to create a venue that provides the highest impact for the advertising dollar,” said Jennifer Stefano, CEO of Border Billboard. “So we created a ‘multi-sensory’ structure that is breaking new ground in outdoor advertising.”
The two large digital signs run a 10-minute cycle of 30 or 60 second spots featuring full motion video. The video is fully synced with sound that is broadcast over radio frequency and can be heard over an FM radio channel that is displayed on the billboard. The signage is integrated with interactive text messaging allowing the audience to participate in contests or get coupons while watching the ad. As a result, advertisers are able to engage the captive audience in ways that were not possible before. Largeadvertisers such as Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Burger King, Chevrolet, Miller, Anheuser Busch and Circuit City have discovered that these venues are an extremely cost effective way to market to this audience and have signed on.
“These advertisers don’t need to develop brand new creative to use on our venues,” said Stefano. “Since we run a 30 second spot with sound enabled, automotive and food advertisers can easily adapt a TV ad for our venues.”
Due to long lines at the crossing, people end up watching the 10-minute cycle four to eight times. For that reason, Stefano recommends that advertisers provide multiple creative pieces to hold the interest of the audience. In addition, she encourages advertisers to use interactive features such as text messaging to engage the audience further.
Opportunities for these digital venues exist on the other side of the border as well where a captive affluent Hispanic audience waits one to two hours to cross over into Mexico. One out of every three people living in San Diego is Hispanic, making the area one of largest Hispanic markets in the country. It is also one of the most affluent of all of the major Hispanic markets in the US with a mean household income of over $57,000. According to a recent research study by KPBS/Competitive Edge, about 1.5 million San Diegans visit Tijuana at least once a year and 530,000 San Diegans visit Tijuana at least once per month.
Based in Las Vegas, NV, Border Billboard currently operates three out-of-home digital signs – two at the Tijuana-San Diego border crossing and one at the Nuevo Laredo/Laredo, TX border crossing. Expansion plans include other border crossings.
“Partnering with SeeSaw Networks enables small networks like us to tap into advertising dollars associated with broader campaigns by large advertisers,” says Stefano. “SeeSaw brings together information from multiple networks into a common format, making it easy for buyers to combine multiple venues from separate networks into a single campaign. As a result, it reduces the amount of work an agency needs to do to plan and buy media. In addition, they can purchase multiple venues from various networks with a single PO rather than having to open multiple purchase orders.”
The ability to reach a targeted Hispanic audience with Border Billboard can be scaled up to a national media buy when a media planner blends other types of out-of-home digital venues on the SeeSaw Network from markets such as Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, New York and Texas. With SeeSaw and highly engaging venues like Border Billboard, advertisers and agencies can easily create customized campaigns that cost effectively reach the right people.
1 Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
2 Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
3 Source: Ask Tijuana Report 2004
